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were transported to France, it would disturb this level. The consequence would be, so to speak, a higher level in France than in England, which would cause it to flow from France to England, which it could only do by causing something of the same value to pass from England to France. Practically, in the case supposed, it could not affect the price of merchandise in any perceptible degree, because a difference of half of one per cent. in any of the various public stocks would restore the equilibrium. I noticed the same error in the theory of money, in the report of the Committee of Ways and Means on the United States' Bank, made by the honorable gentleman from South Carolina, in April, 1830. It is there stated that specie in the United States was depreciated equally with the depreciated paper of the banks which suspended payment. This is wholly untrue. Depreciated paper banishes specie, but cannot depreciate it but in a very inconsiderable degree. Specie, in the case referred to, was banished to New England, where it maintained its integrity. Can the gentleman suppose that specie in New England, in 1816, was depreciated fifty per cent. below its value in other parts of the world? In other words, that the price of commodities was doubled, payable in specie? That a cargo of coffee worth ten cents per pound in other markets, could be brought to Boston and sold for twenty cents, payable in specie?

But it seems this theory of the depreciation of specie makes a necessary part of the system. It seems to be supposed that specie is piled up in the United States, in consequence of the tariff, until it reaches a depreciation equal to the duties of the tariff, say forty per cent. on the average; when it bursts away from its confinement, the specie flows out, and British manufactures flow in, the tariff notwithstanding. The period of these regular overflows was fixed at four years, corresponding with the periods when a new tariff was called for, say 1816, 1820, 1824, 1828. The depreciation of specie is represented as reaching the amount of the tariff, whatever it may be, and the manufactures demand another. It is certainly a most fanciful idea.

There was nothing in the various periods of depression or revulsion referred to, to connect them in any way with the tariff. In the year 1819, there was a revulsion in trade of a most memorable character. It was universal, and affected all Europe. It resulted from the measures then taken for the restoration of a specie currency, not only in England, but in several of the nations of the continent of Europe. The restriction on the Bank of England had been continued from July, 1818, to July, 1819, with an understanding that the bank must be prepared for paying specie at that time. The bank consequently reduced their circulation to an extent which produced a pressure on the mercantile community, of extreme, and, perhaps, unparalleled severity. At the same time, the great indemnity loan of France had been negotiated on the continent, of which Russia, Austria, and Prussia sold out their proportions, and even made further loans of their own, for the purpose of improving their currencies by the substitution of specie for paper. It will be found, on reference to the report of the committee of Parliament, on the subject of the bank resuming specie payments, that at least twenty-five millions sterling, in gold and silver, were transmitted from the commercial parts of Europe to Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in the autumn of 1818. The Bank of France was compelled to suspend discounts for

**No proposition is better established, than that the value of mo. ey, whether it consists of spiere or paper, is depreciated in exact proportion to the increase of its quantity, in any given state of the demand for it. If, for example, the banks, in 1816, doubled the quantity of the circulating medium by their excessive issues, they produced a general de grail of the entire mass of the currency, including gold and silver, proportioned to the redundancy of the issues, and holly independent of the relative depr ciation of bank paper at different places, as compared with specie.' "-Bank Report, p. 13. VOL. VIII.--201

[H. OF R.

a time, at the commencement of 1819; and a universal panic prevailed through all the great cities. Numerous failures, and of some of the largest houses in Europe, took place, and, for a time, all confidence and trade was suspended. It was, in fact, the great change from a paper to a specie currency, not only in England, but the northern parts of Europe. The result was, as estimated by intelligent merchants at the time, an average reduction of about forty per cent. on all commercial property.

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This terrible shock found the United States in a situation of great delicacy and difficulty. We, too, had adopted the wretched expedient of a non-convertible paper currency, from which we were just emerging.

The Bank of the United States had been incorporated, and been in operation since 1817. But, instead of restoring the currency to a true specie basis, the miserable expedient of importing specie, without a corresponding reduction of bank paper, was resorted to. The consequence was, the specie scarcely reached our shores, before it was shipped away again. The state of things in Europe, in 1819, brought the currency to a crisis. The severe, but only practicable remedy, a reduction of bank paper, was applied, and the Bank of the United States was fortunately able to weather the crisis. The reduction in the value of all property in the United States, south of New England, was estimated at forty to fifty per cent. New England having preserved a specie currency, escaped, in a great measure, the shock, but suffered with others in the general reduction in mercantile property throughout the world. Now, Mr. Chairman, what can be more absurd than to attribute this tremendous crisis to our little tariff of 1816! It might, with equal truth, and more propriety, be attributed to the moon.

The spring of 1826 brought with it another memorable revulsion. The year 1825, in England, may be considered the turning point in a career of some thirty years of manufacturing prosperity, which has no parallel in the history of the world. She had arrived at the point of over-supply, and over-population. In the midst of an artificial and overstrained prosperity, a sudden panic arose at the close of 1825. Some seventy bankers failed in the course of a month, and the Bank of England was on the point of stopping payment. This shock fell eventually chiefly on the manufacturing interest. Their products were reduced in a few months about thirty-three and one-third per cent. They have never recovered. This country was affected by this change, in the spring of 1826, in consequence of immense importations of goods at prices enormously reduced, and yet which sold at great loss. It was a period of great discouragement to manufacturers, and may, perhaps, have led, in some measure, to the applications for additional protection in 1828.

The embarrassments of 1829 had not the slightest connexion with the tariff of 1828. A short revival of the manufacturing interest in England, in 1828, led to increased production, reaction, and disappointment, in 1829. Every market was glutted, our own amongst the rest; numerous failures took place, and all confidence was lost. Several manufacturing establishments, founded on borrowed capital, failed. But in all this there was no connexion with a depreciation of specie, it has, in fact, been contended that the present depression of prices is owing to a general enhancement of specie throughout the world.

In the course of his argument, the gentleman from South Carolina adverted to the additional grievance, that, besides paying a share of the public burdens, altogether beyond their proportion, and the bonus to the manufacturers, the burden fell on the South with increased severity, in consequence of its not being expended amongst them; and went so far as to say that he believed a tax of ten millions of dollars expended at home would not be felt more than one of five millions drawn away to be expended abroad. I only advert to this to show its incon

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[MAY 30, 1832.

sistency in the quarter from whence it came. Why, it is sumed to be accompanied by a corresponding ability to the very argument of the ultra free trade school, to which consume."

the gentleman belongs, that it makes no difference where Where, then, is the inequality? I confess I cannot disone's income is expended. Dr. McCulloch acquired cover much of it. In some few articles of American manugreat celebrity by his argument; in which he proved that facture, they pay, perhaps, something more than similar it was no disadvantage to Ireland that the owners of the articles could be imported for; but, in this particular, there soil (the landlords) resided and spent their incomes in is great misapprehension. England; and the same of the English families residing There is, however, the remarkable fact, that, whilst all on the continent. It is, in fact, the argument made use the States employing free labor are decidedly in favor of of by the gentleman himself, in the supposed case of the the protective system, the States employing slave labor five millions sent to France. Applied to a South Carolina are, with some small exception, violently opposed to it. planter, it will stand thus: you can only pay this tax in It is impossible to doubt that there is something in the cotton, and it makes no difference to you whether you circumstance of the employment of these different dedeliver it at home or in New York. If you send specie scriptions of labor, which lies at the bottom of this difto New York, it is precisely the same thing; because either ference of opinion; but why it should produce that effect, you have more than you want, and may as well send that is certainly not obvious. The gentleman from South Caroas cotton, or the disturbance of the level will force the lina informed us that the South has the advantage of the exportation of cotton, and the specie will return. The cheap labor of slaves, of the value of twelve and a half argument is bad; but it is the very basis of free trade. cents per day, as efficient and powerful, for all purposes On a critical examination of the subject, in all its bear- of agriculture, as the free labor of New England, which ings, both practically and theoretically, and the fullest costs fifty cents per day, for the same purposes. He apattention to every argument which I have seen brought pears to perceive the advantage this ought to give them, forward, I cannot discover the shadow of ground for the under a tariff protecting all labor equally, since one would opinion that the value of any part of the productions of naturally expect that the owners of the dear labor would the planting States is diminished by the tariff. If it has be the first to complain of the effect of a system which any effect on rice and tobacco, it must be to increase their put their productions on an equal footing with those proconsumption; and, in respect to cotton, nothing but blind-duced by the cheaper slave labor. Accordingly, the use ness can fail to perceive that it must be, and actually is, he makes of the circumstance is, that, with such advanincreased in value, sensibly and palpably, by the establish-tages on their side, it is impossible that the South should ment of the cotton manufacture in the United States. Can be in a state of decline, wasting in rapid decay, whilst all any one doubt that the consumption of cotton manufac- the North is in a state of the highest prosperity. He contures in the United States is greatly increased by the in-siders the fact as demonstration plain, that the North must creased means of purchase, resulting from the increased have committed robbery upon the South, under the disindustry put in motion by the protective system? Then, guise of the tariff law.

all the cotton manufactured in the United States is of In fact, poor New England he described as so poor American growth, whilst one-third of that manufactured and sterile, that she had no resource to live, but by robin Great Britain is the production of other countries. bery and plunder; and in a moment of misanthropy, he The establishment of a third market, in addition to the informed us that he had given up Hobbes's definition of great markets of England and France, is, in itself, an ad-man, for the more appropriate one, that "man is a plunvantage which practical men will appreciate. It is a con-dering animal." Alas for New England! if she has little stant market, unaffected by foreign events, always at hand, but her head and her hands, she contrives to live withchecking depression when prices are low, and enhancing out perpetrating robbery knowingly. The truth is, the high ones when the market is brisk. prices of the productions of New England labor are reI appeal to practical men, in Charleston and New gulated, for the most part, on the same principles which Orleans, whether it is not a reasonable and common esti- determine those of the South-the foreign market. Agrimate, that the demand for Northern manufactures en culture is her great employment. Her agricultural prohances the price of the whole crop at least a half, if not ductions, beef, pork, butter, cheese, &c., are sent to foa cent a pound. From every view I can take of the sub-reign markets, as well as the productions of the Southern ject, I conscientiously believe that the cotton planter has planter. The same of the product of her fisheries. I do not an interest in the protective system, as direct and positive think the gentleman from South Carolina has overrated as the cotton manufacturer.

the money price of New England labor at fifty cents. Sugar is subject to direct and effectual protection. It But most of the labor is performed by the owners of the is true that the planters of cotton in South Carolina do soil; and if their earnings were measured by the money not admit that they derive any benefit from this protec- price of their surplus products, the remuneration of their tion, and complain of it as an addition to their burdens. labor would, I apprehend, be found exceedingly moderate. But is it not palpable to common sense, and to the slight-it is great industry alone which makes New England est examination, that all the slave labor devoted to the prosperous.

cultivation of sugar is so much withdrawn from the cul- The circumstance, however, that, with this cheap slave tivation of cotton, and relieving it, to that extent, from the labor, the South is complaining of suffering, whilst the only evil under which they are suffering-over-produc- North is content and prosperous with their dear free labor, tion, and adding, in the same degree, to the value of is a striking fact, and deserves a careful and thorough exslave labor? amination.

The truth is, the tariff, so far as it increases the price I have thought a good deal on the subject, without of commodities, acts equally upon all consumers; and coming to any satisfactory result. The first thing which those of the Southern States pay, in proportion to their strikes one, in reference to the effect of the tariff on these. consumption, precisely the same as in the other States. different sections, is the different character of the labor,, Of course, the inequality cannot be much, if any. The in an economical point of view. The most powerful arguCommittee of Ways and Means admit this in their report,ment in favor of a protective system, perhaps, is its which says: "So far as the protecting duties operate as bearing on the general or political character of society. taxes upon consumption, there can be no great inequality All industry is set in motion by capital, and this system in the burdens they impose upon the different portions of seeks to induce capital to devote itself to the employment the Union; and whatever inequality there may be, as it is of domestic industry; because, by adding to the means of founded upon a larger consumption, it may be fairly pre-[comfort and happiness in the laboring classes, their charac

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[H. OF R.

ter and standing in society is elevated, and they are better The above suggestion would account for a less prosfitted to discharge the duties of good citizens. The ad- perous condition than exists in the North. But I have vantages, in this particular, of a high rate of wages, and made all possible inquiry, and do not find the glowing pican elevation of character in the laboring classes, is very ture of distress, drawn by the gentleman from South happily expressed by Dr. McCulloch. This is his language: Carolina, confirmed. I am told the blasted fields of the "The best interests of society require that the rate of South exist only in the gentleman's imagination. I am aswages should be elevated as high as possible; that a taste sured that the rice planters were never more prosperous, for the comforts, luxuries, and enjoyments of human life, and that twenty per cent. is a moderate estimate of the anshould be widely diffused, and, if possible, interwoven nual income from that cultivation. The cotton planters with the national habits and prejudices. A low rate of are said to be in no distress. But, whilst a hand will make wages, by rendering it impossible for increased exertions but three bales of cotton, of three hundred pounds each, to obtain any considerable increase of comforts and enjoy- on the soil of South Carolina, and on the more fertile ments, effectually hinders any such exertions from ever lands of Louisiana the same hand will make from five to being made, and is, of all others, the most powerful cause six bales, of four hundred pounds each, as I am told he of that idleness and apathy that contents itself with what will, by an honorable gentleman near me, [Mr. BULcan barely continue animal existence. The experience of LARD,] it is not surprising that there is a falling off in the all ages and nations proves that high wages are at once the value of cotton lands, and in the profits of cotton planting keenest spur, the most powerful stimulus to unremitting in South Carolina. The cause would seem to lie nearer and assiduous exertion, and the best means of attaching home than the tariff. the people to the institutions under which they live." South Carolina is only going through the same process Now, it is apparent that this political effect upon the which has been passed through by the other States. What character of society, by high wages of labor, cannot have the settlement of the western part of New York and of any action upon slaves. Having no choice or volition, Ohio was to New England; what the settlement of Kenthere is nothing for a stimulus to act upon; they are, in tucky was to Virginia; such, in its effect, has been the setfact, no part of society. So that, in the language of po-tlement of Louisiana to South Carolina. So far from the litical economy, they are, like machinery, merely capital; planting of cotton being a bad business in Louisiana, and the productions of their labor consist wholly of pro and the adjoining States, I am assured that there is no diffits of capital. But it is not perceived how the tariff can ficulty in making investments in that cultivation, which lessen the value of the productions of their labor, in com- will yield a profit of twenty per cent. per annum, or parison with that of the other States. New York and more. Virginia both produce wheat: New York, with dear labor, is content, and Virginia, with cheap labor, is dissatisfied. One would expect an effect directly the reverse.

The effect of the tariff upon labor, in all its bearings, is intimately blended with a consideration of the protective system. In fact, the modern theory in relation to the wages of labor lies at the very foundation of the modern school of free trade.

There is one circumstance in connexion with the planting States, for which I cannot account. What is the occupation of the white population? The six States decid- The theory is this: the natural price of wages is the edly opposed to the tariff, say Virginia, North Carolina, subsistence merely of the laborer: he is not supposed caSouth Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, con-pable of any accumulation. This theory results as a netain a population of 1,982,661 whites; more than all cessary consequence of the adoption of the theory of New England, the population of which is 1,933,350. IMalthus on population, and is of no older date than the am at a loss to know how this population is employed. appearance of that work. It is well known that the We hear of no products of these States but those pro- theory of Malthus is founded upon the supposition that it duced by slave labor. It is clear that the white popula- is the constant tendency of mankind to increase faster tion cannot be employed in raising cotton or tobacco, be- than the means of subsistence. Of course, there are more cause, in doing so, they can earn but twelve and a half people desirous to live than can very well do so. Those cents per day, since the same quantity of labor, performed worst off are consequently content to live on any terms, by a slave, is worth no more. I am told, also, that the and are willing to work for a subsistence, and this is, therewages of overseers, mechanics, &c., are higher than the fore, taken as the natural price of labor, by those writers white labor of the North, and it is well known that many who adopt the theory of Malthus. By this theory of la. mechanics go from the North to the South to get employ-bor, all the profits are supposed to go to the owner of the ment during the winter. It is remarkable, also, that we capital which sets labor in motion; of course, the whole never hear from that region the voice of the working question of the creation of wealth becomes a question of man: it is only capital that we hear speak. It is also re- the greatest profits of capital, since labor is supposed not markable, that, in the slave States, the character of the to accumulate any. This is a departure from the previous opposition to the tariff is in proportion to the number of theory of Adam Smith, who allowed labor to accumulate slaves compared with the whites. Thus the opposition is profits. From this theory also results the idea advanced greatest in South Carolina, where the number of slaves is by the gentleman from South Carolina, that legislation greater than the whites; whilst in Maryland, Kentucky, and cannot create capital, but can only transfer it from one Tennessee, where the whites preponderate over the slaves employment to another. Nothing, in my apprehension, in the proportion of three or four to one, the opposition, can be more erroneous. All property or capital is the in a great measure, ceases. I shall be obliged to any creature of legislation; and those laws which set additiongentleman who can explain this matter. The facts, as al labor in motion, cause a direct creation of wealth. they appear, suggest the inquiry, whether this cheap Now, nothing, in my apprehension, can be more absurd slave labor does not paralyze the industry of the whites? than to apply this theory of labor, and the principles of Whether idleness is not the greatest of their evils? free trade deduced from it, to this country, where a state Whether even the stimulus of the tariff is not sufficient to of things exists so diametrically opposite to that assumed move this inert mass? I shall be glad of information. I by Malthus, as the natural state of man. With us, cercannot otherwise account for the state of things. tainly, subsistence increases faster than population. LaThe capital and industry of the South are equally open bor is every where accumulating capital. to the action of the stimulus of the tariff with those of The error of being thus governed by theory, instead the North. Why are not the mountains of Virginia and of the facts in the case, may be well illustrated by the North Carolina covered with flocks of sheep, as well as theory of wages, and the causes which disturb its uniformthose of Vermont, for which, all admit, they are equally ity, by a reference to Professor Senior's theory of wa well adapted?

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[MAY 30, 1832.

ges, as stated in one of his lectures on that subject. He protection altogether greater than would be necessary to says: "Theoretically, wages ought to be equal in every protect them against natural prices and average profits. place. If there were no disturbing causes; if all persons In fact, from such examination as I have been able to knew perfectly well their own interest and strictly fol- give the subject, I am satisfied that, had we possessed lowed it, and there were no difficulty in moving capital the skill then in use in England, the application of capior labor from place to place, and from employment total and labor to the cotton manufacture, from 1800 to employment, the price of labor would be at the same 1820, would have given to both a remuneration altogether time, every where the same. These difficulties occasion greater than could have been derived from any other the price of labor to vary materially, even at the same application of them, even without any protection whattime and place."

Dr. McCulloch states these differences to be such, that, whilst the price of a day's labor in England is 20d. to 2s., or 40 to 48 cents, in Ireland it is 5d. or 10 cents, and in Hindostan only 3d. or

cents.

The idea which 1 wish to illustrate is this: according to the true theory, wages ought to be every where the same; and yet, owing to disturbing causes, they vary as six to forty-eight. This may be considered rather an extreme case, but is a happy illustration of the errors into which reasoners on political economy are constantly falling, in consequence of their adopting the remote tendencies, or principles of final regulation, as safe practical guides in real life, without reference to the disturbing causes which are constantly causing a deviation from the theoretic rule. Take, as a striking example, the application of a system of political economy, founded on Malthus's theory of population, to the United States. Suppose the theory to be true in the abstract, which may well be doubted, yet, in the United States, it will take centuries before the disturbing cause of a superabundance of new land will be overcome, before we arrive at the state when population presses upon subsistence; and yet we are called on to regulate our policy by an untried system, founded on the principle of over-population, and having relation to the creation of wealth, without regard to human happiness. Professor Senior, in one of his lectures, says, in so many words, "as a political economist, his inquiry relates merely to wealth, and has nothing to do with happi

ness.

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What would be thought of a merchant who should be governed in his business by theoretical prices of merchandise, derived from a study of political economy? The natural price of every commodity is the cost of the labor, and the value of the use of the capital employed in its production. The disturbing causes are the relative proportion of supply and demand. Now, the practical man watches the disturbing causes which are in constant action with great indifference for the natural price. The student of political economy knows and cares nothing for the active disturbing causes, but supposes the actual price to be always in conformity with the remote tendency.

These remarks have an important practical bearing on the question of the tariff. No one who will carefully look into the subject can doubt that the great improvements which were made in machinery, in England, a short time previous to the year 1800, especially in the cotton manufacture, caused an impulse of capital, and an application of labor toward the various branches of manufacture, for a long series of years, during which the profits of capital and the wages of labor were kept very considerably above the natural or average rates.

At length the crisis arrived when the regulating principle of an increase of population was brought into action. I fix that period in the spring of 1826. Since that period, the agents of Malthus, for curing the evils of overpopulation, to wit, gradual starvation and pauperism, have been in pretty regular and constant operation. In the course of ten or fifteen years they may probably restore both labor and the profits of capital to their natural prices But it is evident that, during this period of unnatural depression, our manufacturers require a degree of

or rates.

ever.

The gentleman from South Carolina has expressed an opinion in favor of free trade, which I hardly expected from any practical statesman. It was, that we ought to open our ports to the ships and productions of all nations, without any regard to the restrictions which other nations may impose on our own. This strikes me as a very singular species of free trade, where the freedom is all of one side, except the freedom of submission.

But, says the gentleman from South Carolina, there is no danger in it; foreign goods will not be given you; you cannot buy the foreign article unless the foreigner will take yours in exchange. Suppose he takes money; if he takes more than you can conveniently spare, it will be sure to come back again, because the scarcity of money will reduce the price of your products to a point which will induce somebody to buy and export them. This is the theory, which is beautiful; but the process is sometimes rather excruciating in practice. To test the matter properly, suppose an extreme case: suppose you open your ports to all the world, whilst all the world will receive nothing from you in exchange, with the single exception of gold and silver. The inevitable consequence will be a continued and ceaseless drain of these metals, without any action of the favorite principle which brings them back again. No degree of scarcity or of suffering can do that. The evils of a constantly appreciating currency can have no termination. The use of the precious metals, as a medium of exchange, must be abandoned, and a retrograde movement in civilization is inevitable. Again, suppose the same principle had been adopted in reference to our navigation, we should not have heard of the remark of Mr. Huskisson, in justification of the relaxation of the navigation laws, that "other nations, after our example, had taken a leaf out of their book." No, sir, we could not have kept a single ship afloat. The gentleman from South Carolina, before closing his address to this committee, putting himself in the place of South Carolina, made an impassioned and solemn appeal to me, as a representative of Massachusetts, demanding, in the sacred name of justice, a repeal of che odious system of protection, which for sixteen years has been grinding South Carolina in the dust, by which "Massachusetts taxes South Carolina." I am aware, Mr. Chairman, with how much more propriety this appeal might have been made to more than one of my distinguished colleagues, and how much better they are qualified to answer it. But, thus called on, I will answer that appeal. Before doing so, however, allow me to ask the honorable gentleman from South Carolina, why make this appeal to Massachusetts? She is not the author of the protective system; she has opposed it in every stage. She has submitted to the will of Congress, and conformed in her industry and her capital. The district which I have the honor to represent has been most active in her opposition to the system. The weapons used in that warfare, although long since abandoned by the hands that forged them, may be still seen, new furbished up, amongst the partisans who still hold out. My constituents are eminently commercial; they opposed the system as injurious to commerce; they have discovered their mistake. Their experience has taught them what seems to be an obvious truth, that manufactures furnish the natural aliment and support to commerce. If this appeal were to be made at all, why not make it to

MAY 31, 1832.]

Pennsylvania? to New York?

Columbian College.—The Tariff.

Those great States established the system, and it is they who will now decide how far it shall be continued or abandoned.

And now, sir, appealed to as I am, let me ask South Carolina, in the name of that justice which she invokes, will she prostrate those interests which she herself called into existence? The tariff of 1816 was a South Carolina measure, introduced and advocated by the most eminent of her sons. All the investments of Massachusetts in the cotton manufacture have been made since that period, and on the strength of that policy. And does South Carolina call on Massachusetts to make this sacrifice, in the sacred name of justice? May I not say, in the language of the gentleman himself, "has madness seized on" South Carolina?

THURSDAY, MAY 31.

[H. OF R.

The resolution of Mr. H. EVERETT, calling for certain information concerning Post Office contracts, coming up next for consideration,

Mr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, wished that it might be passed over to-day, in order to take up the unfinished business of yesterday.

This further postponement was objected to by Mr. WHITTLESEY; when

Mr. JOHNSON moved to proceed to other business, and succeeded in that motion by a vote of 89 to 26.

COLUMBIAN COLLEGE.

The bill to bestow a portion of the lots of the United States in the city of Washington, on the Columbian college, (to the value of $25,000,) as an endowment, was taken up, advocated warmly by Mr. DODDRIDGE, and its expediency questioned by Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, to whom Mr. DODDRIDGE replied. ETT also spoke upon an amendment which was proposMr. SPEIGHT, Mr. WASHINGTON, and Mr. JEWed and rejected; and then the bill was ordered to be read a third time-yeas 89.

The revolutionary pension bill of the Senate being the special order of the day, was read a third time. of which had already been very fully discussed, moved Mr. BOON, observing that this was a measure, the merits for the previous question, to prevent useless debate and The motion was sustained, and the previous question was carried by yeas and nays-128 to 45; and The bill was then finally passed, without a division being called. THE TARIFF.

save time.

And here, Mr. Chairman, I avail myself of the opportu nity to answer a remark made by the gentleman from South Carolina at an early period of the session, that the minimum duty of six and a quarter cents the square yard on cottons, established by the tariff of 1816, was not intended as a protection of manufactures, since it imposed merely a revenue duty of twenty-five per cent. ad valorem, twenty-five cents the square yard being at that time the cost of the lowest descriptions of cottons imported. This idea is altogether erroneous. I have in my hand two inToices of Calcutta cottons, imported in 1816, with the custom-house certificate upon them. I find, on examination, that the duty of six and a quarter cents the square yard amounted to at least seventy-five per cent. on the average, and in some cases to ninety. I may also refer to the report of a committee of merchants of Boston, made in 1820; a document which will hardly be disputed by the friends of free trade, in which it is stated that this duty on the coarse cottons of India amounted to eighty-three and one-half per cent. on the average. My colleague [Mr. REED] also informs me that similar invoices were exhibited on this floor at the time of discussing the bill, with the express declaration that the duty would amount to eighty Mr. T. T. BOULDIN, of Virginia, said: Were I now per cent., and would prove, as it did, an entire prohibi- to govern myself by a rule to which it is my desire, in tion; so that there could have been no mistake in the mat-general, to conform, I should not say a single word on the ter. Under these circumstances, let me ask, is South Ca- momentous question of which the committee now have the rolina prepared to abandon the Union, and meet the hor- charge. That rule is to meddle not with things that are rors of a civil war, on the strength of the theory of the too mighty for me. But, sir, I may not choose: the deep, gentleman from South Carolina, for a nonentity-a mere the vital interest, the known feelings and principles of my abstraction-a figment of the brain? I am aware the ex-constituents, and of the State of which they are a part, citement of South Carolina is no mockery. I agree with the demand that I should here essay, at least, to set forth their gentleman that it is not the spirit of vaporing; but I believe wrongs, and demand their rights. it, to use his own words, "an arrant delusion, as anti-social as it is unjust." A fearful responsibility rests somewhere! As to the honorable gentleman from South Carolina himself, it were little to say he is sincere; he is even beyond enthusiasm. I can attribute to him on this subject nothing short of downright fanaticism. I apply this word in the conviction of its truth, and in the spirit of charity. Who can have attended to the spirit of his whole address, without perceiving that his own mind is made up? Who can have noticed the kindling of his manner when he The question whether this Government is a compact spoke of "glorious rebellion;" his picture of the pros- between sovereign States, or, in the genuine sense of the perity of South Carolina in a state of separation; of the terms, a Government formed by and for the people of the glorious harvest which free trade would furnish her; and United States, is one on which so much ability has been disnot perceive that nothing short of the influence of fanati-played, that an argument on it by me would be somewhat cism could have so wrought upon him, unless one would attribute to him the unholier motive of a criminal ambition?

The House then again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the tariff bill reported by Mr. McDUFFIE,

South Carolina prosperous separated from the Union! Her population doubled in ten years! What but infatuation can think so? What will free trade do for her? All the ports of the United States are as free now as they can be for foreign trade. Every article of foreign merchan dise can be bought and sold in them for exportation, free of duty. In the language of the gentleman himself, I say to him, it is time to pause. For heaven's sake, pause!

I know it is the constant habit of the majority here to start back at the bare mention of the constitution of the United States; but I should not obey my masters' will, nor do the work of them that sent me, were I to fail in making continual claim of the rights and liberties which do of right appertain to them.

I shall, therefore, proceed to show that the power to protect manufactures belongs not to this Government, but that our acts to that end are usurpations.

absurd. It will serve the purpose of that continual claim which Virginia makes, and means not to yield, to do little more than state the general conclusions to which these arguments lead, and which, as she thinks, need little argument for their support.

The august body that drew up the articles of the constitution, acted a part which was strictly advisory, and that of scriveners merely. The thirteen States acted on the plan-acted as several distinct political communities previously organized: it was a deed drawn up, presented to, and considered by each; and when sealed and delivered by any one, was as if it had been drawn up by that one,

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